anyone know anything about keyboards / pianos ?

[tabs]

hi, my daughter wants a home type upright keyboard, ive been offered a "general music sapphire 2" .. now i know nothing at all about them, so i need to get some sort of idea what its worth etc, its in good nik, and as far as i know everything works, many thanks

 

[logiciel]

There's a US company called General Music that makes electronic organs, but it doesn't sound like that's the sort of thing you're looking for.
Upright usually refers to an ordinary mechanical piano as opposed to the type that's used for concerts.

 

[MaturityDodger]

I just looked it up, and that model appears to be a small organ (not a euphemism), and not a piano-type keyboard.

I assume she wants one because she's looking to learn to play piano?
If this is the case, you want to get either:
1) an actual piano, or
2) a keyboard with weighted keys. And get a proper keyboard stand too, unless it's the type of keyboard that's already built into a stand.

Proper piano is obviously preferable, but keyboard is much better in terms of practicality, storage and price.

Without weighted keys, it'll be very hard for her to learn to play properly.

How old is your daughter?


If she already plays and wants it for some other reason, then ignore the above!

 

[Cyland101]

Interested in this too. My son needs something to learn on for school, and whilst in a music shop over the weekend they recommended a Yamaha PSR-E333 which you can get online for around £130. Not really keen to spend too much more, but this seems reasonable although it does not have weighted keys, and is the smaller one (61 keys I think)

Any thoughts on the above keyboard?

 

[MaturityDodger]

It's probably about the best you're going to get for your budget (although I must say that I've been away from music for quite a while so I'm not by any means up-to-date).

A quick run-through of what you can get and what it's good for...

* 'Proper' electric piano (or digital piano). This will have weighted keys and be velocity-sensitive. Won't have many voices or features. Speakers built in, but also outputs for external amplification and speakers, or headphones. As you pay more, it'll feel and sound more like a real piano.
* Keyboard (or synthesizer). This will usually be smaller (fewer keys, and sometimes the actual keys are smaller). It will have loads of voices and rhythms and features. Built-in speakers. As you pay more it will feel more piano-like, but not as good as the digital piano. Lower-end ones start off really cheap.
* MIDI controllers. These can be piano or keyboard style, but aren't a full package. They're just a keyboard-shaped controller, and you need another device to turn that into actual sounds. The weighted piano-style ones would start cheaper than a full digital piano.

Obviously there isn't a strict line between a digital piano and a keyboard, you might find something that's half way between the two.

From your budget I think you'll have to be looking at a keyboard, and I don't know of any problem with the one you've identified.

A keyboard is fine for a beginner. Your son will learn his way around the keyboard, where the notes are etc.
When he gets better and needs to really 'perform' a piece of music and not just play through it, then a keyboard won't help much with learning to do that.

The extra features and voices of a keyboard could work for or against you. It could make playing more fun, so he wants to practice more. Or you might find that he spends all his practice time messing about with the voices or setting his rendition of 'Fur Elise' to a nice bossa nova beat.

We're reaching the end of my knowledge now - piano was never my first instrument. Hopefully somebody else will know more, especially about the current market.

 

[tabs]

thanks folks, i was offered the above for £75, to me it looked great with all the zillion buttons, dials and pedals, but what do i know

 

[Stuart Wright]

We started with an inexpensive keyboard to see if our kids would take to the piano. One did, one switched to drums.
Proper weighted keys and pedals are needed to learn properly so we bought a proper piano which we found at a great price and had it 'serviced' and now it's both a beautiful piece of furniture and an awesome musical instrument. Though we do encourage daughter #1 to practise sometimes on the keyboard in silence, it's still magical to hear her progress to playing proper music.
You might get more specialised help in our musicians forum.

 

[Cyland101]

Thanks guys. It's for a 12 year old and doing music homework on a iPad mini although doable is not really working well enough. For me I think I'll splash out on the Yamaha PSR-E333 which will do him, and his brother who will be following in his footsteps next year. If any of them show more interest, then we will investigate something better.

 

[logiciel]

something to learn on for school

For doing what at school?

 

[IronGiant]

Well it's a thread about keyboards and pianos, so it's not a huge intellectual leap to make to assume it's to play music

 

[Cyland101]

For doing what at school?

Yeah this

Well it's a thread about keyboards and pianos, so it's not a huge intellectual leap to make to assume it's to play music

He has got music homework where he has to compose bits of music, and he has managed with an iPad mini, but apparently this does not sound the same as on the keyboard/piano at school. (Funny that )

I doubt very much that he will become the next greatest composer, but as we want him to do his best at school, a keyboard is a must.